Sympathy, Tenderness
by Lord Vetinari
Summary: Katan's love for his master, as woven through a songfic. Taken from a song of the same name, and placed into a dimension where the angel of his dreams has different feelings than our known Rosiel...


::I am a firm believer that Rosiel once upon a time had redeeming qualities, and also that KATAN ROCKS! This takes place in an alternate dimension where things go the way I want them to, so sorry to Kaori Yuki, but I don't give a fudge for Setsuna and Sara- It's all about the angels, man.::  
  
"Why are you crying, young one?"  
  
"..."  
  
"Let me shield you.. No one should suffer at such a young age..."  
  
/Sympathy, tenderness,  
  
Warm as the Summer,  
  
Offer me their embrace.\  
  
The young cherub couldn't help but sob into the angel's shoulder. Had he needed to bear witness to such a sin? Why were humans so wretched now?  
  
"Shh, young one, it's alright..."  
  
"But.. Rosiel-sama..."  
  
The slaughter, the carnage, and the carnal pleasures they took in their evil.. They revelled in it all.  
  
"Why does God allow such beings to exist..?" The older angel smiled and lightened his embrace.  
  
"They are still salvageable, friend. They sin, they lie, they cheat and steal and murder, but there is still good in them.. Somewhere, inside of them..." The young cherub child grabbed only tighter, unable to push the images out of his mind.  
  
"Goodness? In such sinners?" The experienced angel's eyes glazed over as he looked off in space.  
  
"Yes... Goodness in sin, just as even in angels like ourselves lie the seeds of evil..."  
  
"R-Rosiel-sama!!" The cherub pleaded, "Don't speak like that!" Again the angel smiled, returning his attention to his childlike being.  
  
"I only speak the truth. It's a fact of existence.. But know that there is no ultimate evil or good, and therefore, anyone can be saved.. or damned." The cherub's eyes widened.  
  
"No! Not you, Sir Rosiel!" The angel laughed gently. *Not you, Rosiel- sama,* he thought, *You are a being of the light and salvation.. The true beacon of justice and truth..* The young spirit was surprised when the angel held him closer.  
  
"Do not idealize me.. Although, I am quite flattered. Thank you, young one." His smile; his gentle, caressing smile; the kind embrace; the warmth and comfort that radiated from his angelic body; the aura of truth and righteousness that glowed around his being... *Sir Rosiel... My only master.. I shall bow to no other..*  
  
/Friendliness, gentleness,  
  
Strangers to my life,  
  
They are there in his face.\  
  
*You who made me from a simple grigore into a being of light.. Let me serve you in any way possible.. My lord.. You treat me as an equal, and I do not deserve such kindess..*  
  
"What's my little cherub thinking now?" Asked the angel, wiping away his child's tears. The cherub smiled- actually smiled, in the comfort of his master.  
  
"Rosiel-sama.." He was simply overwhelmed with the euphoria of his master's presence. "Rosiel-sama, I..."  
  
Suddenly, the Earth and the Heavens shattered. The cherub fell from his loving master's embrace, all fell to darkness as existence shattered into sharp and irregenerable fragments. The light was gone, all was darkness.. and sin. He had just awoken the seeds of evil that had lay within his own soul. He was in love.  
  
"N-! NO! ROSIEL!!!"  
  
"What is it, dear?" The angel gently rocked his cherub, reawakening him. "Are you alright? Poor thing, was the scenery of those humans too much?" Again, the young angel was in his arms, within the light, and the angel's loving embrace.. but it was all cold, misplaced.  
  
"Rosiel-sama..." He finally made out, "Forgive me, for I have sinned..." There was utter confusion in his master's face as he tried to figure out the meaning of this cryptic message.  
  
"You?" Gently, he caressed the cherub's hair. "What could you have done? So sweet and innocent- I cannot see anything you could possibly do wrong."  
  
"You.. said yourself that all can be evil..."  
  
"Yes.. But I still cannot see what in such a short amount of time you could have done to suddenly be shunned of my light. I didn't see any wrongdoing- you were in my arms this whole time... And you're still a child. You're safe so long as you're with me."  
  
*Even if I love you, Master? Even if protecting my actions would send the both of us out of Azuilt? No, I will not allow it... I will not let anyone know. Our love- My love, will never be revealed.*  
  
"There's that serious expression again.. Come, Katan, what is on your mind?" *I am not worthy to be in your arms.. I am a hollow shell of shadows, taking pleasure in your warmth and light..* "..Katan?"  
  
"F-Forgive me, Sir Rosiel..!" Again, the cherub fell to sobbing. "I am beyond redemption!!" Never saying a word, the angel just held him kindly in his embrace.  
  
**Katan, tiny cherub, you are not the only angel who hath sinned...**  
  
/Goodness and sweetness  
  
And kindness  
  
Abound in this place\  
  
*I am beyond saving.. I am in love with my master- another angel- another male, and I cannot do anything about it! I don't want to do anything about it! ..Kami-sama, relieve me of my existence, that I may no longer be a burden to my Rosiel-sama! Smite me that I will no longer continue this wretched lie, that I do not love as the humans do! I want! I desire! And I desire exactly which I cannot have...!*  
  
/I am in love  
  
With the things  
  
That I see in his face -  
  
It's a memory I know  
  
Time will never erase...\  
  
"Rosiel-sama." The angel addressed looked up from his perch within the shattered sanctuary.  
  
"Yes, cherub?"  
  
"..Azuilt still needs you.. Let Alexiel go- we need you more dearly now than ever.." Silence, as Katan shifted his weight. "Sir Rosiel.. Alexiel will never love you.. Is there nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?" The fallen angel turned away, looking out a broken window. "Rosiel-sama..."  
  
Within a flash, an instant, the cherub was upon his master, in an awkward and backward embrace. Rosiel was too shocked and surprised to move or struggle, and Katan was too overwhelmed he had actually taken action to change it. Two seconds- five- a seeming eternity passed, but the grown cherub gently turned his master's face towards him.  
  
"Rosiel-sama... I.." Rosiel was frozen, time had stopped, all was within Katan's control, and the situation had never been more ripe to reap and take fruit in. "I am beyond redemption... For I am in love.. I am in love with you!"  
  
Kind, gentle warmth and light that they had not felt in years filled the roofless, shattered room. They gazed into one another's eyes, both mutually feeling a happiness neither had known in centuries. Could it indeed.. Could it indeed be love between them? It was as if the decades had not gone by- as though they were back in their beloved Azuilt- as though they had a second chance.. In Katan, Rosiel saw a return of feelings he had never dreamt of, or would have seen from his sister.. And in Rosiel, Katan saw the emotions he had loved his master for so long ago..  
  
/I am in love  
  
With the things  
  
That I see in his face -  
  
It's a memory I know  
  
Time will never erase...\  
  
A gentle kiss passed between the two sinned angels, but they had two qualities both had been needing badly that were exchanged and had given up their divine existence for:  
  
Sympathy.. Tenderness.. 


End file.
